Ascension

from St. John Orthodox Church

Feast Day: 40 days after Pascha
Liturgical color: White
Themes: When Christ ascends into Heaven, He sits at the right hand of the Father. Christ shows us that our life on earth is a preparation for the life we will have in Heaven. We see that God’s plan for us is to be with Him when we leave earth.  He promises to send the Holy Spirit to guide us and that we would never be alone.

And also: While they were looking up, two angels in white robes appeared and said to them: "Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, Who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same was as you have seen Him go there."Christ will return to the earth in the same manner as He left it. When the risen Lord returns again in glory, God's will for mankind will be fulfilled.

Special activities: Today we say, "Christ has ascended!" "Indeed, he has ascended!"

Around the web:
Festal Learning Basket from Charming the Birds from the Trees (I love her suggestion to fly a kite or go cloud watching!)
Lesson from Orthodox ABC's
On Ancient Faith Radio: Under the Grapevine, Fr. Thomas Hopko (Speaking the Truth in Love)
About the icon of the Ascension from Icon Reader

Festal Decorations/Activity with kids
We'll be taking down our Flower Garden that we "grew during Lent and have enjoyed for Pascha. We will replace it with a cloudy sky scene with a rainbow. For Pentecost, we can add a dove!

Quotes:
"The Symbol of Faith - the Nicene Creed - which summarizes the important doctrines and teachings of the Church, contains these words: "And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father." The importance and meaning of this feast is that Jesus glorified our fallen and sinful humanity when He returned to the Father. In Jesus, Who is perfect God and perfect man, man is reunited with God. At His birth, Jesus took on our human nature. Through His Ascension He deified this human nature by taking His Body to heaven and giving it a place of honor at the right hand of the Father. With Christ, man's nature also ascends. Through Christ, man becomes a "partaker of divine nature" (II Peter 1:4). When Christ became man, He took up human nature and we share our human nature with Him. It is through Christ, Who is perfect God and perfect man, that we "partake of divine nature." When we say that Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father, we mean that man has been restored to communion with God because Christ gives His humanity - which He shares with us - a permanent place of honor in heaven. Christ honors us by putting us close to the Father." - Source